Conventional beer/lager cooling systems typically have a bulk beverage supply located at a separate location (called a cellar room) from the bar counter and the beverage is chilled in the cellar by being passed through an ice bank cooler to a temperature just below its ultimate dispense temperature. The chilled beverage is then pumped from the cellar room to the bar within an insulated python.
If one wishes to dispense the beverage at very cold temperatures e.g. below 0.degree. C., such a system has problems. In particular, one has to chill the beverage in the cellar room to an even lower temperature. Whilst one can utilise glycol mixtures in the ice bank cooler instead of water to obtain lower beverage temperatures, the lower the required beverage temperature the greater the risk that it will freeze solid in the cooler or the python during periods when the beverage is not being dispensed. It will then be impossible to operate the dispense system when the next drink is required to be dispensed.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a system which is capable of successfully dispensing a chilled beverage from a bulk supply to a temperature close to the freezing point of the beverage.